Pakistani-made nuclear weapons are now ready for delivery to Saudi Arabia and can be delivered at any moment, according to the BBC.

While Saudi Arabia’s efforts are seen as a response to Iran’s longstanding nuclear program, some experts believe Riyadh may be capable of deploying nuclear weapons more quickly than Tehran.
 

Mark Urban, diplomatic and defense editor for the BBC’s “Newsnight” program, wrote that a senior NATO decision maker had told him earlier this year “that he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery.”

A former Pakistani intelligence officer told Urban that he believed that “the Pakistanis certainly maintain a certain number of warheads on the basis that if the Saudis were to ask for them at any given time they would be transferred.”

In return, the Saudi Kingdom has provided generous financial assistance to Pakistan, financing mosques and infrastructure projects, the London Telegraph reported, along with defense contracts.

Experts interviewed by the BBC differed as to how the weapons would be operated, with some suggesting that Pakistan might deploy its own forces in Saudi Arabia to operate nuclear weapons, and others that the Saudis would insist on maintaining total control of their national nuclear deterrent.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founding father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, rejected the BBC’s allegations, according to the Telegraph. He said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia would have a lot to lose if they were penalized with sanctions for such activity.

Khan, who has admitted running a proliferation ring that worked with Iran and Libya, said suggested that the Saudis would be “idiots” to participate in such a scheme. 

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also dismissed the allegations as “baseless,” as did Gen. Hamid Gul, the former head of the Pakistani ISI intelligence service.

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